A Prayer for the Crown-Shy: A Monk and Robot Book (Monk & Robot 2)

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The first volume, A Psalm for the Wild-Built, was nominated for Hugo, Nebula and Locus awards this year, I’ve read and reviewed it here. Mosscap’s questions, concerns and view points send their thoughts in unexpected directions and I must say that the characters’ inner process are just as interesting as the external events. By turns tender and philosophical, A Psalm for the Wild-Built was a book that was gentle and soothing, and just the type of novella that was so in tune with the times that it wound up on a Most Influential Science Fiction Books of All-Time list only months after it was published. It’s also a bit frustrating because Dex isn’t as patient as Mosscap, so that means they often get flummoxed explaining things to Mosscap, which doesn’t do too much for the touchy-feels. Becky Chambers' new series continues to ask: in a world where people have what they want, does having more even matter?

Perhaps this is an intentional feeling by Chambers: after all, people enter our lives, impact us, and then leave all the time. Dex is willing to accommodate everyone else’s feelings and emotions, but never gives them self permission to lean on others. Whether that comes off as relaxing and comfortable or twee and saccharine is going to be largely dependent on the mood and preferences of the reader.Sibling Dex, in his capacity as a renowned tea monk, would undoubtedly say that a key requirement of perfect tea is allowing it to steep; letting it soak in the water long enough to be powerful. It stopped before a road sign, placing its hinged hands on its matte-silver hips as it read the text to itself. Still, I would heartily recommend A Prayer for the Crown-Shy to fans of A Psalm for the Wild-Built, with the caveat that they should expect something different in this outing. We ask all users help us create a welcoming environment by reporting posts/comments that do not follow the subreddit rules.

Dried salt and accumulated trail dust veritably peeled from their skin, running in grubby spirals into the greywater catch.Psalm is a series of strung-together scenes leading to the specific end point at the abandoned hermitage. The dedication for the first book states, “ For anybody who could use a break,” and for this book it reads, “ For anybody who doesn’t know where they’re going. I think it's worse in A Prayer for the Crown-Shy than it was in the first book because this one is much more people-y, with more time spent in Chambers's ecotopia civilization than in the adjacent wild places.

Written with all of Chambers’ characteristic nuance and careful thought, this is a cozy, wholesome meditation on the nature of consciousness and its place in the natural world. i still really enjoyed this, and i still love the main characters with every ounce of my being, but it just didn't hit the same as book one did for me, sadly! Quiet and contemplative, empathic and warmhearted, this masterful sequel builds on the themes of the first volume to posit a more sustainable, more caring way of life.

Anyway, if I had to say something even remotely evaluative about the book, I’d say it suffers mildly—like a mouse’s squeak of mildly, that’s how mildly—from having a less well-defined journey than the first book. Between the world she has created, the characters we meet, and her writing style, the book is a thought provoking masterpiece. Readers get more information about how the human society on Panga, their homeworld, operates and this is a version of a communal utopia. Of course I don’t have to,” Mosscap scoffed, clearly finding Dex’s reluctance on this front ridiculous.

Dex (a nonbinary monk) and Mosscap (a robot) are travelling together from village to village, Mosscap in the hope of finding what it is that humans need and Dex in the hope of finding themself. The creation of such objects took just as much work and thought as anything else, yet garnered little praise from those who saw them every day. truly a beautiful story, that feels like a warm and healing hug, and i hope becky chambers gives us more!Becky Chambers continues to impress with her second book, ‘A Prayer for the Crown-Shy’, in the Monk and Robot series. These are the best parts of the book, and there are a few instances where the world and the characters align and say something profound about the human condition. A Prayer for the Crown-Shy mostly lives up to the hype, and you should definitely check it out if you’re already read the first book in the Monk and Robot series. This has led them to reach the brink of exhaustion and it resonated with me on a personal level, as I am sure it will for most of us.